The Textual and Terminological Database for the Portuguese Parliament [BDTT-AR] is the result of a collaboration between the Portuguese Parliament (Assembleia da República) and the Centro de Linguística da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. I was introduced to this project by Rute Costa, Raquel Silva and Zara Soares de Almeida during their excellent presentation at a recent conference.

BDTT-AR is a multilingual database (Portuguese, English and French) that contains terms used within the Portuguese Parliament. Terminological information has been retrieved from texts produced within this institution, and thoroughly checked with the different working groups involved – linguists, terminologists, translators, documentalists and specialists from the different Parliament areas.
The BDTT-AR is conceived as a continuously updated dynamic database.

For me, the groundbreaking feature of this project is the collaboration between all of the above professional and multidisciplinary groups, as well as the fact that this precious resource has been made freely available. Let us hope that it will be used a model for similar future initiatives based upon cooperation.